Mo. revenue director resigns amid controversy

A top official in Gov. Jay Nixon's administration abruptly resigned Monday, becoming the first person to step aside amid a controversy over the way Missouri gathers information about people with concealed gun permits.

A top official in Gov. Jay Nixon's administration abruptly resigned Monday, becoming the first person to step aside amid a controversy over the way Missouri gathers information about people with concealed gun permits.

Department of Revenue Director Brian Long had been on the job for just four months. His appointment had come shortly after the agency had launched a new driver's licensing process in which clerks make electronic copies of people's personal documents, such as birth certificates and concealed gun permits.

Long had defended the process as a strong safeguard against fraud, despite criticism from Republican lawmakers who denounced it as a potential invasion of privacy. But on Monday, Long submitted his resignation effective immediately, noting he was doing so "with great regret."

"My brief tenure as Director has taken a toll on me and my family that I could not have anticipated when I accepted the position in December 2012," Long wrote in his resignation letter, which the governor's office released upon the request of The Associated Press.

Nixon spokesman Scott Holste said Long was neither asked nor encouraged to resign. Long did not immediately return a telephone message.

The controversy began in early March, when Republicans touted a lawsuit challenging the licensing office procedure of making copies of concealed gun permits. Local licensing offices handle concealed gun documents because they issue the necessary photo identification cards or place the concealed-carry endorsement on people's driver's licenses.

Long and other members of Nixon's administration have said those scanned documents are being kept on a state computer server and not shared with the federal government or other entities. But during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing last week, the head of the Missouri State Highway Patrol said his agency had twice obtained a separate electronic list of concealed gun permit holders that was based on driver's license information and shared that list with a fraud investigator in the Social Security Administration.

The Social Security Administration said Monday that its investigators were unable to read the encrypted disks, which were destroyed in both instances.